


Why You Should Never Mess with the Science Family

by Zorro_sci



Series: The who, what, when, where, why and how of the science family [3]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Kidnapping, M/M, Science Family, The family sticks together, Violence, poor science family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-04
Updated: 2014-08-10
Packaged: 2018-02-11 17:15:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2076387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zorro_sci/pseuds/Zorro_sci
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An old enemy threatens the science family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gone

A pair of piercing wails broke the silence that had fallen over the sleeping household.

Bruce started to climb out of bed to check on the crying infants, when he felt a hand on his wrist pulling him back into bed.

"Jemma and Fitz are awake," he mumbled sleepily as he tried to pull away.

"And you need your sleep. You transformed earlier today. Go back to bed. I'll take care of it," Tony said as he yanked Bruce back into bed, before rolling out of bed himself and leaving the room.

Bruce snuggled back under the covers. He really was tired, hulking out earlier in the day to defend the city against giant, mutated cockroaches had drained him of all of his energy. Within moments he drifted off, but his dreams were far from peaceful. 

He tossed and turned as his sleeping thoughts were filled with the terrified faces and desperate screams of his children. He couldn't see why they were so frightened, but he knew had to reach them. He ran as fast as he was able, but they seemed to be getting further and further away as their pleas for him to help them grew more and more frantic. They were fading, disappearing from in front of him as he tried to run faster, and then suddenly their cries were replaced by a complete and eerie silence that clawed at his gut and made his heart pound with dread. Desperately, he ran in the direction they had disappeared . . . and then startled to wakefulness calling their names.

Panting and trying to calm his still racing heart, Bruce took in his surrounding. He was in his bedroom at the Tower. It was still and quiet, and the only thing out of place was that Tony was not beside him. Then again, his husband had gone to take care of the twins. Perhaps he was still in the nursery.

Needing Tony's calming presence by his side, Bruce clambered out of bed and made his way to the nursery. 

As he approached he noticed that the door was ajar, but perhaps Tony had been too tired to close it. He approached slowly, not wanting to wake the now quiet babies, but when he looked in the door the sight before him made him sick.

Furniture was overturned as if there had been a struggle, the window was broken, and neither Tony or the twins were inside. Starting to panic, Bruce ran from the nursery and made his way to Peter's room, and found the same. The room was in a disarray, and Peter was gone. Heart sinking, he open Jane's door only to be confronted with the same sight again. 

Panting and nearly completely panicked, Bruce tore into the living room and found no one there. The kitchen was also empty.

Having checked the entire penthouse and finding it empty, Bruce sunk to the floor and sobbed. Where was his family?


	2. Threats

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **WARNING: violence, threats of violence and kidnapping**

Tony's head was pounding as he blinked open his eyes. He was surrounded by a dreary, dim light and laying on a damp cement floor. He heard crying, and he thought back. He had gone into the nursery to check on Jemma and Fitz. They had been crying, so he had leaned over one of the cribs, and then he'd felt a pain in his head and everything had gone black.

He reached a hand around and gently felt the back of his head. There was a large bump forming and dried blood in his hair. He'd clearly been hit over the head. He guessed that answered the question of what the pain had been.

"Papa!" a concerned voice called beside him.

He instantly recognized the voice as Jane, and turned his throbbing head to look in the direction of her call. She was sitting on the dank floor trying, fairly unsuccessfully, to balance her wailing baby brother and sister against her slight frame. She seemed relieved when he met her eyes with his, though her eyes were still filled with horror.

He rose to help her with Jemma and Fitz, steadying himself as nausea threaten to overtake him. Then he sat next to his daughter and took the two infants into his arms one at a time. He easily managed to balance both of them in his lap against his broad chest and arms in a practiced motion.

"Bad men came in the night and took us away," she whispered urgently. "They hit Peter over the head."

She pointed a few feet away, and he squinted his eyes and was just able to make out a shadowy figure. Peter, laying on the ground in an unconscious heap. Tony handed Fitz to Jane again, and clutched Jemma tightly to his chest with one arm as he moved to his older son's side.

He let out the breath he was holding when he got close enough to see that Peter's small chest was rising and falling steadily with each breath he took. Using his free hand, he reached out and checked for injuries on his son's head. There was a large bump on the left side, above his ear and just behind his hairline. Thankfully though, there was no blood. 

He stroked the hand down Peter's cheek tenderly, and then moved two fingers down to his neck. There he found Peter's strong, steady pulse at his carotid artery. He huffed a sigh of relief, and turned back towards his daughter.

"I think he's okay, but I would feel better if your Daddy checked him over," Tony said.

Jane was silent a moment and then said brokenly, "I haven't seen Daddy. I don't know where he is."

Tony felt icy dread squeeze his chest at her words. The logical part of him knew that it was probably good if Bruce wasn't there. It probably meant that he had managed to escape. But there was still part of him that screamed despairingly that if they were all there, and Bruce wasn't, it meant the worst had happened.

He didn't have long to dwell on the thought before a door opened, flooding the space with a beam of bright light. An average height, stocky man with white hair and a matching mustache strolled in. He was wearing an army General's uniform, and Tony recognized him instantly. General Ross.

The sight of the man who had vowed vengeance against his husband made his blood run cold. Did he have Bruce? Where was he holding him, and what was he doing to him? His mind was a whirl of panic, but he schooled his face and his body language. His eyes met the General's defiantly and he tipped his chin up at him slightly in challenge.

"Well, if it isn't the beast's family. If you believe that a monster can actually love or feel loyalty," Ross said snidely.

"Ross. What do you want?" Tony growled.

"The monster's mate speaks. Amazing to think we almost stopped him together, huh, Stark? Your weapons were the only ones that could slow him down, much less stun him. Can't imagine it would have taken you much longer to find a way to destroy the beast. Just think, if you'd only devoted a little more time to that project we wouldn't be here now," the General taunted.

"What do you want?" The engineer repeated through gritted teeth.

"Touchy, touchy. All I wanted was a volunteer to send a message to the monster; just in case he hasn't missed you yet," he remarked. He turned towards the children and said in a voice as prickly as a cactus, "Who wants to say 'hello' to your poor excuse for a daddy?"

Well, at least Tony knew Bruce was alive, and probably not there if they were sending him a message "in case he hadn't missed them." 

He didn't have long to be relieved though, because the military man was advancing toward his children. He stepped forward to place himself between them, and raised his chin in defiance once more.

"Let's leave the children out of this, huh?" he said in his business voice.

"Why should I do that? Did the monster leave my child out of it?!?" Ross said in disgust.

Tony took a defiant step forward and said, "I'm not letting you near my children."

Ross pulled out his pistol from his side holster and leveled it at Tony's head. 

"You have two choices. You can let me borrow one of your children, or I can shoot you. Then your precious children will have no one to defend them, and I can do whatever I please with them. Think about it, Stark." Ross sneered.

"I'll go!" Jane spoke up from behind Tony. "Don't hurt my Papa! Please! I'll go!"

"Smart girl," the General remarked smugly, motioning for Jane to come over to him without making any moves to holster his gun.

He backed out the door with Jane in tow, pistol still aimed at Tony's head until he shut the door.

When the metal door slammed back into place it took all of Tony's strength not to cry. He had to stay strong for his children. He owed them that much, because he had failed them in so many other ways.


	3. The Message

Bruce didn't allow himself to stay on the floor for long. He was acutely aware that his family needed him. He needed to pull himself together. He staggered back up to his feet and started combing through the bedrooms for clues as to what had happened. Subtle things that he had missed in his initial panic.

"JARVIS?" he inquired.

"Yes sir," the AI intoned.

"Did the security cameras catch what happened?"

"The primary security cameras were disabled, sir, but there is some footage from the back-up cameras."

"Play it on the nearest screen, please."

JARVIS didn't say anything, but a screen descended in front of the wall he was facing and grainy, black and white security footage appeared. 

On the tape, Tony was leaning over Fitz's crib to pick him up. Then a man in army fatigues appeared out of the shadows, and hit him over the head with the back of his gun. Tony collapsed to the floor, and several other men appeared in frame. One carrying a terrified-looking Jane, one toting an unconscious Peter, one who grabbed the screaming twins roughly and knocked over the cribs in the process, and one who helped the first one pick up Tony. There was no sound, but Bruce could see their mouths moving as the first soldier gave directions. Then they all moved out of frame in the direction of the nursery window, which is how Bruce imagined they left.

Military involvement likely meant one thing. General Ross. What confused Bruce was, if those were Ross' men, why didn't they take him? Or at least try to take him? He had been fast asleep. Surely he would have been an easy target.

With a sinking feeling in his chest he realized that if Ross sent men and they had left him alone and taken his entire family, that was exactly what they were supposed to do. Ross had wanted to capture his family; not him. The real question was why, and he dreaded the answer.

"Sir," JARVIS broke into his thoughts. "There's a video message for you from General Ross."

"Play it," he said grimly.

The screen in front of him came back to life, only this time Jane's scared face filled up the space.

"Daddy! Daddy, I hope you're okay. We're okay. Well, they hit Peter over the head, and Papa too, but Papa says they'll be okay," she said.

"Say what you were told!" a voice barked from offscreen.

"We have your family . . .monster. It's time these poor children knew the truth. They'll know what you really are. That you are unfit to be a father. You'll be lucky if they ever want to see you again. Then you'll know what it's like to lose what you love most," Jane recited, before she broke into a near-sob and added frantically, "Daddy, don't listen! They're liars! We love you!"

A hand appeared in the frame and smacked Jane across the face with such force that she disappeared from the shot. Bruce felt his fists clenching in anger as he heard Ross yelling at his daughter and then a couple more smacks followed by little yelps.

The screen filled again with a well-known and despised face that sneered, "We have your family. They're safe for now. If you want it to stay that way, you'll do exactly as you're told. Don't try to find them. We'll return them to you relatively unharmed if and when I'm ready."

The warning was followed by blackness as the message ended. Bruce sank to the ground once more, feeling angry and helpless. What was he going to do?


	4. Truth

The door opened again, and Jane was thrown roughly into the cell. Tony rushed to her side, and took in her tears and the bruises starting to form on her cheeks with a frown. Internally, he was raging against Ross and his men for doing this to his little girl, but externally he was calm for her sake.

"Papa," she said brokenly as she collapsed into his arms and hid her face in his shoulder. "They made me say horrible things to Daddy. They made me call him a monster and say he was a bad Daddy."

"Shhhh, it's okay baby. I'm sure Daddy knows that you didn't mean it. He knows that they made you say it. It'll be okay," he soothed as he smoothed her long, brown curls.

"Papa," she said reluctantly, her face still hidden. "They said Daddy is a murderer. The scary man with the mustache said Daddy killed a bunch of people and hurt his daughter."

Tony paused. He didn't know what to say. Bruce had killed people. It was something he avoided whenever possible, and he felt remorse for the lives he had taken, but the fact remained that Bruce had killed people. Furthermore, so had Tony; he had even more blood on his hands. 

Still, he wasn't sure how he should approach this topic with his Jane, who despite how precocious she was, was only six years old. It seemed wrong to talk about murder with his little girl, but he knew it would be worse not to do it. Despite her young age, she had already experienced too much violence; even heard her mother be shot to death. Not addressing Ross' charges would only allow fear and doubt to grow in her mind. It would allow her to equate Bruce with the men who had taken her mother from her.

"You've met Hulk, right?" he started cautiously.

She nodded, "Daddy turned into Hulk so we could escape from the bad men."

"Well, Daddy hasn't always been able to turn into Hulk. A long time ago, Daddy was doing an experiment and something went wrong. There was an accident, and it caused him to be exposed to a lot of radiation. That should have hurt him, maybe even killed him, but instead he turned into the Hulk.

He was scared and confused, so Hulk smashed a lot of things and ended up hurting some people. Some of them even died. 

One of the people who got hurt was Daddy's friend Betty. She was working with him in the lab when it happened, and Hulk accidentally hurt her. The man with the mustache is her father, and he never forgave your Daddy for that. 

He's tried to capture or kill Hulk ever since. He's sent army men after him, and when Hulk gets cornered, he gets angry and scared and fights back."

"And he's killed some of them?" Jane asked, pulling back from his shoulder momentarily and staring at him wide-eyed.

"Yes," Tony answered simply before he elaborated. "Hulk protects your Daddy and the people he loves from getting hurt. Sometimes that means fighting against people who are trying to do bad things. And even though it's not good to kill people, sometimes protecting someone means the people trying to do bad things get killed so the people they are trying to hurt are safe."

Jane's face was still hidden in his shoulder, so he couldn't gauge her reaction. He was far from sure he was doing a good job of explaining things, but he was really trying.

"Does that make sense?" he asked, trying to keep the uncertainty out of his voice.

She pulled back to look at him, her face calm, and nodded. Despite how much he felt he had fumbled, his words seemed to have soothed her. There was no distress visible in her eyes as she searched his face, and then looked around the cell taking everything in with a sweep of her brown gaze.

"Papa, where's Peter? Is he okay?" She asked when she realized her brother was nowhere to be found.

Her father quickly and quietly shushed her. Then he leaned in to hug her so he could speak quietly into her ear.

"He used his little sticky hands to climb onto the ceiling and out of the cell when you got back. I only hope he can escape," he whispered.

He hadn't really wanted to send his young son out alone, but the boy had been insistent that he could escape and get help. He had climbed onto the ceiling in preparation for his escape, and Tony knew he was in no position to argue. He certainly couldn't reach the high ceiling to get him down. So he had just watched as Peter had crawled out of the cell, and prayed that he would be safe.

Jane nodded slightly against his shoulder and whispered back just as quietly, "What are we going to do Papa?"

"We'll figure something out," he whispered back confidently. He only wished he felt as confident as he sounded.

One of the twins started fussing, so Tony gave Jane a quick squeeze, and got up and walked over to the only cot in the small cell, (where he had laid both of the babies). He saw Fitz flailing his small arms as he cried, and picked him up. The boy needed his diaper changed, but their captors hadn't provided them with any diapers.

Thinking quickly, Tony removed his shirts, (thankfully it had been a cold night so he had been wearing a tank top and a t-shirt under his long sleeve pajama shirt), and ripped them along the seams. It was far from ideal, but he could fashion the pieces of cloth into diapers. Then as they became soiled he could rinse them in the small sink in the cell and lay them out to dry and be reused. Using one of the makeshift diapers, he changed Fitz and then laid him back on the cot with his sister.

"You should try to sleep too, Janey," Tony said, removing the blanket from the cot and then resettling the younger children on it.

He wasn't exactly sure what time it was, but at least if she slept she wouldn't be worrying about their situation. That at least was something, he thought as he handed the blanket to Jane. She obediently took it and settled herself on the floor. 

Her father stooped down to kiss her forehead and then sat nearby, facing the door. He couldn't do much, but he could keep watch over his children while they slept, and that was exactly what he intended to do.


	5. A Plan

Steve, Natasha and Clint sat around the penthouse living room, waiting for Bruce to be ready to talk. They had all been on a mission, but had quickly made their way to a Stark Tower when JARVIS had informed them of the situation. They had found Bruce sitting with his head in his hands in front of a lit holoscreen, and quickly moved to comfort him. Now they were waiting to hear about the situation.

"So, what happened exactly?" Clint asked figuring the doctor wouldn't speak without prompting.

"Some of General Ross' men broke into the Tower. They waited for Tony to check on Jemma and Fitz, and then knocked him unconscious and carried him and the children out through a broken window in the nursery. They probably had a helicopter waiting, and I was too out of it to hear any of it," Bruce related with no small amount of guilt. "He's holding them somewhere, but I have no idea where. They sent me a message, and I tried to trace it, but neither JARVIS or I were able to triangulate the location of the signal. Plus, Ross has been associated with a least a dozen different military bases in the last couple of years."

"A dozen isn't so many if we all work together," Steve ventured. "We could split up and see if there are signs that any of those bases are currently being used by Ross."

"Or we could fly over them, and then do a follow up on the potentials," Clint added.

"But we'd need to do it without them knowing," Bruce cautioned. "Ross threatened to hurt them if I tried anything, and he's not bluffing."

"If we used the Stealth Quinjet they wouldn't be able to detect us," Natasha contributed.

"But we'd have to fly high enough to avoid detection, how would we see the base?" Steve asked.

"Hi, my name is Hawkeye. I see better from a distance," Clint chipped in sarcastically.

"Well, it's a start," Bruce sighed.

"Dr. Banner, there's a new incoming message for you," JARVIS informed.

No one needed to ask who it was from.

"Play it, please. And try to track where it came from," Bruce answered.

"I already attempted to trace the origins of the message. The results were inconclusive," the AI replied almost sadly before bring up the message on the nearest screen.

General Ross' face filled the screen as he sneered, "Look what I found climbing the walls in the hallway."

The camera turned briefly and Bruce could see Peter being held by two large soldiers as he struggled against their grip. He felt his breath catch and his stomach drop as the camera angled back toward the General.

"Willful brat. He even threw something that looked like spider webs at my men. Let this be a lesson to both of you about trying to defy me."

Ross walked over to Peter and backhanded him across the face. Then he pushed him heavily to the ground and commanded his men to "step on the spider."

Bruce winced and wished he could look away as the pair of soldiers mercilessly kicked and stomped on the small boy. He couldn't though, couldn't tear his eyes away from the screen, couldn't stop watching, and he supposed he deserved as much. It was his enemy after all, his old score, that had caused his family to be taken in the first place.

The message ended, and Bruce's head fell into his hands in defeat. Next to him Steve put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, but his face was frozen in horror. He couldn't understand how military men could justify beating a small child. Clint was studying one of his arrowheads with interest, and Natasha's face had gone completely blank.

"We'll find them," Steve reassured.

"Yeah, don't worry, doc. They'll be safe and sound before you know it, and I'll put an arrow through that bastard's eye socket," Clint added.

"So . . The Quinjet . . . . " Bruce said as he raised his head.


	6. Hurry

When two men had brought Peter back to the cell badly beaten, it took all of Tony's self-control not to lash out at them. He knew any sloppy attacks on his part would just put them all in more danger, but he couldn't help the rage that bubbled up in him when he saw the purpling bruises blooming all over his son's small body and the small streams of blood trickling down his face and arms.

He rushed to Peter's side and checked him for additional injuries. The boy groaned and drew a few sharp breaths in pain as Tony's hands gently roamed his small frame. Other than bruising he probably had a few cracked ribs, his lip was split and he had several small bleeding scrapes on his arms.

Tony walked over to the cot and picked up one of the rags that had once been his shirt. Then he scurried over to the small sink and ran the tap over the cloth. Returning to his son's side, he gently cleaned the scrapes and Peter's cut lip with the rag. None of the wounds were deep, so he figured it was best to leave them open to the air once they were clean, (though he was far from sure he was making the right decision; _Bruce would know what to do,_ he thought glumly, missing his husband's expertise).

He ushered Peter over to share the blanket with Jane, and encouraged him to get some rest. The lad complied, and soon all four of the children were snoring as Tony kept vigil over them.

As he sat shivering and shirtless in the silent darkness he tried to stop himself from being overcome by hopelessness, but each time he saw the bruises on the faces of his oldest children he realized again just how powerless he was in this situation. It made him incredibly angry; both with himself and especially with the men who were holding them.

He only hoped that Bruce would find them soon. He wasn't sure what he would do if he didn't. For all his brilliance, he had not one plan for how they could escape. At least not any that he thought wouldn't end in one of them being hurt or killed.

"Hurry Bruce, we need you," he whispered as he continued his watch.

Bruce would come. He _**had**_ to come.


	7. The Base

"This one is abandoned too," Clint called as they passed over another military base. 

So far they had checked four of the known bases that General Ross had used recently, and all of them were no longer being used. Bruce was growing more and more frustrated with each flyover. He was anxious to find his family, and each abandoned base made him more worried that perhaps Ross was located at a site they weren't even aware of.

"Let's try the next one," Steve directed.

Natasha nodded and turned the jet to make her way to the next base on the list.

Bruce sighed and started to pace. Ross kidnapped his family twenty-four hours ago, and he had no intentions of letting the General keep them any longer if he had anything to say about it. Still, it was seeming less and less likely that locating them was going to be an easy task.

As he paced he felt a strange feeling settle in his chest. A certainty that the were on the right track; that they were getting closer.

"They're at this base," he said, though he had no idea how he was so sure.

"What?" Natasha asked.

"Tony and the kids. They're at the base we're going to. I just know it. I don't know how, but I know it," Bruce elaborated.

"We all want to find them, doc, but let's see if the base is even still being used before we give in to wishful thinking," Steve said gently.

Bruce was about to protest that it wasn't "wishful thinking" when Clint spoke up, "Well, I'm not as certain as Bruce that this is the right base, but there are definitely people using it. There are guards stationed at the doors, and signs that there are people inside."

"This is the base," the physicist repeated certainly. 

He could practically hear his family calling for him, and he was growing more anxious by the second. He _needed_ to get into that base. The urge was so strong it was wearing away his caution and reason a little more each second. 

"We need to be sure. If this is the wrong base and we go in, the news will travel. Then who knows what Ross will do? Maybe we should check out the other bases first and see if any of them are still being used. If they're not, we'll know for sure that this is the right place. If some of them are, we can create a plan for figuring out which one is the base that Ross is using," Steve reasoned.

If Bruce was being logical, Steve's plan made sense. However, he had passed logical several minutes ago. All he knew was that what his teammate was proposing would take too much time. Time he wasn't willing to wait.

"Sorry, Cap. I can't wait that long," he said as he opened the door and jumped out.

As he plummeted toward earth he transformed into the Hulk, his last thought before being engulfed in green being a plea to his other half to, _'Keep them safe.'_

When the green behemoth hit the ground he ran toward the base and charged the nearest entrance. He easily threw both shocked guards against the wall, rendering them unconscious, and then broke down the door.

Once he was inside the base he knew he had to hurry. General Ross had said he would do bad things to Hulk family. Hulk needed to protect family. He ran down the halls at top speed pushing any soldier who got in his way to the side forcefully.


	8. Rescue

In the cell, Tony heard the commotion and a distinctive roar. Figuring that Ross may attempt something desperate now that Hulk had arrived, he quickly got to work finding a way to protect the children. He woke Jane and Peter, and lifted the babies off of the cot and into their arms. Then he turned the cot on its side, and ushered the children behind it, making sure they were safely huddled out of sight, and sternly telling them not come out until they were told. No matter what they heard. Then he positioned himself in front of the door in such a way that he was in-between the entranceway and the cot.

Not long after, a pair of soldiers entered the cell door. 

Tony was able to surprise one of them by tackling him into the wall, hitting his head heavily against the brick. However, he had no more than downed the first soldier when the other caught him with a punch to the jaw. He was momentarily stunned, and then turned his attention to the new threat.

The pair traded blows, but Tony was aware that he wasn't getting anywhere, so he dashed through the cell door and hoped he would be followed. Luckily, the soldier pursued him. Now he just had to hope that the soldier giving pursuit had forgotten about the children.

As he hurried down the hall he realized that there may be more soldiers on the way to the cell. Suddenly incredibly worried, he turned around to make sure no one else was approaching the door he had just run through. The soldier seized his moment of distraction and unleashed a powerful haymaker against the billionaire.

The engineer fell to the ground in a heap, and just as the soldier hefted the unconscious man in his arms, General Ross appeared beside him and Hulk rounded the corner in front of him. The soldier froze as he found himself unwittingly in the stand off. Hulk looked ready to charge, but hesitated as the General quickly reached over and pulled the arc reactor from Tony's bare chest.

"Think twice monster," he said as he gestured at the arc reactor in his hand. 

"NO HURT TONY!" Hulk bellowed.

"Then I'd be careful. Wouldn't want to accidentally smash this," Ross answered, waving the arc reactor back and forth in front of him. 

Hulk growled, but seemed to consider his options. If he tried to smash Ross while he was holding Mate's shiny heart, he could accidentally smash it. Then Mate would die. He looked at his big hands and realized that even if he could get back Mate's shiny heart, his hands were too big to put it back where it belonged safely. He heard Tony start to breathe laboredly in the soldier's arms, and was unwilling to risk his mate's life, so he began shrinking back.

"Good monster," the army man sneered. He clearly thought he had the advantage now that Bruce was back in human form.

Bruce was tired and achy, but he immediately realized the gravity of the situation, so he pushed the feelings aside. He needed to be alert. He ran at the General with strength and speed he shouldn't have had after de-hulking, and caught him by surprise when he punched him in the face.

Ross reeled back and Bruce grabbed the reactor from his surprise-loosened grip. Then he hit him again with enough force to send him to the floor and knock him unconscious. Once he was down, he quickly kicked him into a nearby room and shut the door.

Moving quickly, now that Ross was unlikely to interrupt him, he clicked the arc reactor back into its place in Tony's chest. He brought two fingers to Tony's carotid pulse and waited with a held breath for the frantic throbbing to even out. It did, and he sighed in relief.

He frowned as he looked at the bruises blooming on Tony's chest and face, and the terrified, fear-frozen soldier still holding him in his arms. Bruce had no doubt that the soldier had likely caused the bruises, but at the moment he looked so young and scared that Bruce took pity on him. He couldn't be much more than twenty, and he was just following orders.

"Get out of here!" Bruce instructed the soldier as he somehow found the strength to lift Tony out of his arms.

The young man looked at him in confusion for a moment, and then nodded and ran out the nearest exit.

Bruce's strength didn't last long. He had to carefully lay Tony on the floor as weakness overtook him when the adrenaline started to wear off. Thankfully, it wasn't long after that that Tony regained consciousness.

"Bruce?" he asked as his eyes focused on the figure in front of him.

"Yeah. I'm here," he answered.

"The kids? Ross?" Tony questioned, still trying to fit all the pieces together.

"I haven't found the kids yet, but I knocked Ross unconscious. He's in there," he motioned at a nearby door and then grimaced. "I'm not sure how much longer he'll be out though."

"We've got him. You go with Tony to find the kids," Steve called from behind him.

"Cap?" Tony questioned. "Now, I know my internal clock might be off, but weren't the kids and I captured just a little over a day ago? And weren't you and the rest of the team tracking down the big-bads behind the giant cockroaches?"

"Yeah, but we told SHIELD they needed to put different agents on the assignment as soon as we heard what happened," Clint explained, as he jumped down from somewhere in the ceiling. "This was more important. No one messes with our Science Family. . . now go get the science babies already. Cap and I have got this."

Bruce helped Tony up and followed him to the prison cell. He was immediately worried when he saw the overturned cot and an apparently empty cell.

"Guys? You can come out now! Papa's back," Tony called. 

He walked toward the cot, feeling a little nervous. The soldier he had knocked out was gone. He only hoped . . . .

"Papa?" Jane questioned as her eyes peeked over the overturned bed; then she saw the other figure in the room and squealed, "Daddy!"

Bruce and Tony rushed over and helped the children get out from behind the cot, and then gathered them up in a big hug.

As they pulled out of the hug, Jane's face seemed to cloud over, "Daddy?"

"Yes, sweetheart?" 

"The stuff I said. About you being a monster and a bad daddy. I didn't mean it. I'm sorry," she said sadly, looking like she was on the verge of tears. "I didn't want to say it . . .but they said they would hurt Papa . . . And . . . . "

"Janey, it's okay. I know you didn't mean it, and I'm so proud of you for looking after Papa," Bruce cut her off as scooped her up and gathered her in a reassuring hug.

"I love you, Daddy," she whispered into his shoulder.

"I love you, too."

"This is all very touching, but let's get out of here," Clint called from the doorway.

They complied and followed him back to the Quinjet, sticking as close together as possible.


	9. Together

Bruce had just finished checking that the children were safe in their beds for the third time in twenty minutes when he returned to the living room to join the others. None of them said a word about Bruce's incessant trips down the hallway to peek into the bedrooms. They all understood his fears.

"So, what's going to happen to Ross?" Tony asked as he pulled Bruce close to him on the loveseat.

"Well, since Captain Goody-Two-Shoes wouldn't let me give him what he deserved-"

"Clint," Steve warned.

"What?!? I'm just saying if _anyone_ ever deserved an arrow through the eye . . . " the archer grumbled.

"SHIELD is building a case against him using the footage that JARVIS saved. He'll be court-martialed, probably given a dishonorable discharge, and go to jail for a very long time," Natasha spoke up.

"It won't be long enough," Bruce muttered.

The others nodded. 

"Well, it's about time we turned in for the night," Steve said as he stood from the couch. "Let us know if you need anything."

The assassins followed him to the elevator, and Bruce and Tony were left alone.

"You alright?" Tony asked, when he noticed that Bruce had gone still and was just staring at him.

"Honestly? No. I can't help but think what could have happened; all because someone who hates me wanted to settle an old score. He was willing to hurt children just to hurt me. Tony, what if . . . . . " Bruce trailed off in horror.

"Hey, Bruce. The kids are okay. They're safe. You found us, you saved us, and we're alright," Tony comforted, squeezing Bruce's shoulder gently as he spoke.

"I'm not going to be over this for a while," Bruce admitted.

"Me either," Tony confessed quietly. "But we'll face it together, right?"

"Together," Bruce agreed, holding his hand out to his husband.

The pair stood and went to check if all was well one more time before they went to bed. They knew that this new routine would likely go on for a while. They would feel compelled to check on the children dozens of times each night for the foreseeable future. They would both probably have nightmares, and the children too. It was going to a long road back to normal, well their "normal," but they knew they had each other's support along the way. They were a family, and that's what families do.


End file.
